1. The waters of modesty have receded from every face,
Leaving the sides as barren as deserts.

2. Disrespect spread among people until
Returning greetings was considered a good deed.

3. Faces, that if you sprinkled roses on graves,
Would still frown with no good to say.

4. Lips that say "Welcome," yet if left to their own devices,
Would say nothing decent or kind.

5. May God lengthen your life! Is this a greeting of affection?
Or did the greeter attempt something more?

6. Nations wandered blindly through the wilds of ignorance.
Deceived by their fortune, though fortune's way is to provide one day, and abandon the next.

7. They subjected the peoples and raided the countries,
One after the other.

8. They forgot on the rise the day of decline,
Though decline entices those rising swiftly.

9. The philosopher wearied of people for an era,
While spirituality shunned them for an era.

10. The people pursue each other.
A hawk by night is pursued at dawn.

11. Armies defeat each other.
While larger masses trample smaller ones.

12. Beware, o wolves, the roar of a lion!
His fangs are sharper and claws more piercing than yours.

13. Do not sleep, o lion, for the wolves have not slept,
Despite the twisting of entrails and breaking of bones.

14. Lessons throughout the nights, but where are those
Who open the book and read?

15. You are the excellent warner, o star of awe,
Shaking the plains and mountains with terror.

16. A people speculated and said:
"A portent sent to the great earth."

17. If you hold death in your right hand, hurl it as flames
Upon the creatures.

18. Have you received a secret from the humiliator of the arrogant
And protector of the weak, O star?

19. An all-encompassing and controlling lord of every living being,
Who flattened the plains and smoothed the rough terrain.

20. Tomorrow, all noses are alike, none look upon another
On earth with even a speck of arrogance.

21. Tomorrow we are all dust, with no sovereign over dust
On land or sea except the Almighty.

22. Tomorrow, struggle becomes embrace
In the abyss, and the servant becomes free.

23. If what they say is true, o star, then proclaim
What you have been commanded. You have lived generously long.